Dying Breed - Insight 9

“It’s a dying breed…”

“They don’t make ‘em like that anymore…”

Those are two common phrases every man, woman, and child hear in agriculture on an, unfortunately, regular basis. Farming and ranching are inherently tied to the culture that settled the western United States. There is an innate magnetism toward the hard work of the farmer, the hardiness of the cowboy, and the joint tie to the land which they both tend in different ways.

Today many of those men and women who earned their places in our local histories and the hearts of our families are fading away. They were either part of the greatest generation or the bridge between those difficult times and the transition toward suburban America. While the world changed around them at a lightspeed pace, they continued to do what they do best at the speed of a sauntering cow. They tended livestock from the back of their best horse and worked from sunup to sundown and sometimes even longer. They braved the triple digit temperatures of the unforgiving Montana badlands and survived in the seventy below zero blizzards on the Rocky Mountain fronts.

We, like many others in our area, recently learned of the unexpected passing of a long-time family friend. The man, Bill Pelton, was known far and wide throughout the Yellowstone Valley and unquestionably made an impact on his community and the state of Montana. When I learned of this loss to his family, ours, the community, the state, and agriculture I could not help but think back to the two phrases highlighted above.

Bill and his family took in my grandfather when he was a teenager. That kindness shown by the Pelton family was something that has become uncharacteristic these days. I have no doubt that because of one family’s charity, grace, and generosity we received countless stories, previously unknown to our family, of my grandfather’s own charitable actions to help others when he passed away a decade ago. The original concept of ‘pay it forward’ started with men brought up in difficult situations who had to learn how to give what they could and simply say ‘thank you’ while understanding they could never repay in full those who helped them the most.

This singular example of a teenager’s survival provides a glimpse into the family Bill Pelton came from and the man he was throughout his life.

“They don’t make ‘em like that anymore…” is, unfortunately, a constant reminder that we need to do better. It is times like this where we can look at the loss of great men like Bill and reflect on how best we can serve others, our community, and our state before we ask what is best for us. An aim to be a provider rather than a constant consumer. They may not make ‘em like that anymore, but it does not mean we cannot try to meet the standards those before us have laid in front of our feet.

Maybe one day we can all be like that ‘dying breed.’ However, it is not without sacrifice. The payoff, though, is that if it means we leave this world a little better than we came into it, then maybe someday someone else will look to us and say, “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore…”